Papyrus, Puzzles, And Monsters
Chapter four has now been updated with more detail added to the scenes. I took the poll down too as it's not relevant any more. I hope you enjoy and please review!
...
It was very soon that the two encountered a monster, a Snowdrake, a teen comedian. Though his jokes were awful, Frisk humored the monster that wanted a captive audience by laughing while she dodged the attacks meant to keep her attention, though Chara complained unheard about his jokes being worse than Sans's. Thankfully, that satisfied the monster who flew away happy, dropping coins at Frisk's feet. Much to Frisk's relief, that was the only monster roadblock on the way to Papyrus and Sans, and after getting turned around and nearly ending up in a lake, which caused Chara to grumble about Frisk having no sense of direction, they found the right road and came upon Papyrus and Sans. She stopped in front of them hesitantly.
"SO AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE..." the skeleton with no inside voice was saying before Sans tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. Papyrus did several double takes before turning to Sans. "OH MY GOD, SANS, IS THAT A HUMAN?! OR DID YOU PAINT THAT INCONVENIENTLY SHAPED LAMP TO PRANK ME AGAIN? I BET YOU DID! BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL THE GREAT PAPYRUS THIS TIME!" He grinned triumphantly and intending to take the "lamp" back to its spot, went over and picked Frisk up.
"Hey!" she squawked in surprise and wriggled, trying to get down.
Papyrus nearly dropped her in surprise at feeling something that was alive, moving, and definitely not a lamp, but then steadied himself and gently set her down on her feet. "OKAY, SO YOU'RE NOT A LAMP...OH MY GOD." Papyrus whisper yelled to Sans, which of course meant Frisk and Chara could still hear him. "IS THAT ACTUALLY A HUMAN THIS TIME?!"
"Yes." Sans whispered back.
Frisk shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Um, hi, I'm..."
But Papyrus was too excited to hear her. "OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL...I'M GONNA...I'LL BE SO POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!"
Frisk wasn't sure whether to laugh or run. Papyrus's over-excitement was kind of cute, but she certainly didn't want to be captured.
Chara however had already lost the battle with laughter. Frisk was thankful only she could hear her. "He may have gotten taller, but he hasn't changed one bit. He's just a goofy big kid."
Meanwhile, Papyrus was calming down. "AHEM...HUMAN, YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! YOU MAY HAVE BEEN VERY CLEVER TO DISGUISE YOURSELF AS A LAMP..." Frisk gave him a "da fug?!" look while Sans held back a snort and Chara laughed even harder. "...BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN...THEN..." He scratched his head sheepishly. "I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE, CONTINUE ONLY IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus then walked off.
"Well, that went well. Don't sweat it, kid." Sans had noticed that Frisk was backing away slowly. "I'll keep an eye socket out for you." He then went off as well and Frisk continued on ahead.
After fending off an Ice Cap, well, ignoring the Ice Cap's hat until it got annoyed and left, Frisk and Chara headed down the road, passing a sign that said, "No moving." that was near another sentry station. As they tried to walk past it, a bipedal dog popped its head out. It was mostly white, with the top of its head being black, and it wore a pink tank top with a dog logo as well as tan pants with brown spots. But what really caught Frisk's attention was the two daggers it was holding and she instinctively took a step back, which made it around and glare in her direction. "Is something moving? I can only see something that's moving. And if something WAS moving, for example, a HUMAN, I'll make sure it never moves again!"
"Stay. Still. Doggo's eyes are bad. He can't see you if you don't move." Chara whispered to Frisk, who held absolutely still as the dog moved one of its daggers towards her, fighting the urge to run as the blade passed by her face. "Now pet him. Don't move the rest of your body and move your arm out of his line of sight. It'll confuse him and he'll stop attacking." Frisk obeyed and carefully pet Doggo, who started barking immediately.
"I've been pet! Pat! Pot! Putt!" The Doggo was completely freaking out. "S-Something pet me! S-Something that isn't moving!"
Okay, now I feel terrible. Frisk thought as the Doggo started trembling. But what she didn't know was that the soul link forming between them could enable one to hear their partner's thoughts and feel their feelings if they were strong enough, and she had accidentally projected her thoughts to Chara.
"It's better he freaks out a little than you get a sword run through you. Don't feel terrible. He'll be fine. And don't talk! He can still hear you." Chara warned, thinking Frisk was speaking aloud as neither of them knew about the soul link, let alone the side effects of a soul link.
Um, Chara? I didn't say a word. Doggo had jumped back into his station, mumbling about needing dog treats for this. so Frisk quickly continued on before he could notice and stop her again.
"What are you talking about? You're talking right now to tell me you weren't talking!"
"I'm not talking. I'm thinking. Can you hear this?" Frisk thought to her.
"Yes, I can...Why the heck am I reading your thoughts?!" Chara asked in total shock. "This is way too weird!"
"I don't know! I'm not even fully convinced I'm not crazy right now! What the heck is going on?!"
"I don't know! I just asked you!"
"How am I supposed to know?!"
"I don't know!"
"O-Okay, let's just calm down...We can figure this out later." Frisk took a deep breath. "Well, there's at least one benefit to all this."
"What?"
"I can talk to you in public without sounding as crazy as I feel right now."
"You've got a point there. This might even be crazier than the normal craziness in the Underground." Chara said with a laugh, calming down a little.
"Maybe." Frisk said, eyeing a pile of dog treats someone, probably Doggo, had been smoking instead of eating.
The two girls walked in comfortable silence for a minute before Frisk had a question.
"Hey, Chara, how'd you figure out how to get past that dog thing?"
"That's actually a really funny story." Chara told her with a giggle. "Sans and I had heard about this cool treasure in a dungeon in Waterfall, but Doggo was guarding it. So we..." She launched into a story about how she and Sans had figured out how to get past the Doggo and sneaked into the dungeons, then found out the "treasure" was a bunch of golden, Temmie flake covered dog treats guarded by a bunch of Temmies.
"So like five of them have bit down on Sans's hood and won't let go, then one decides to jump up and bite his butt! So he starts screaming and running and then..." Chara cut herself off when she saw Sans standing up ahead waiting for them.
"Hey, here's something important to remember." Sans instructed Frisk as she walked up to him. "My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move and it won't hurt you. Here's an easy way to keep it in mind. Imagine a stop sign. When you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. Simple, right? When fighting, think about blue stop signs."
"Thanks, Sans." Frisk told him before moving along, going around the huge patch of ice to avoid the embarrassing face plant she knew would happen if she tried to slide across. However, this caused her to bump into something coming down from the northern path. "Oops! I'm so sorry! I..." she started to say as she looked up towards the person she bumped into, then gulped when she realized it was a bipedal white dog in armor, carrying a shield and a sharp sword that was almost as tall as the dog. "Oh crap..."
But the dog didn't seem to be interested in hurting her. The very fluffy white dog was wagging its tail excitedly and staring at her hand, wanting to be petted. Cautiously, she lifted her hand, and it got even more excited, panting happily. She lightly petted its neck, and it pounced happily on her, knocking her to the ground.
"Oof!" she groaned, but looked to the dog, who was watching her expectantly, and she couldn't help but smile. "Oh, so you want me to pet you more? Is that what you want?" she asked with a giggle and the dog nodded eagerly, raising its head to meet her hand. She could have sworn its neck grew longer, but decided she was seeing things as she giggled and pet it again. Much to her surprise, its neck got even longer as it barked and wiggled happily.
"Um, Chara, is that supposed to happen?" Frisk asked.
Chara giggled. "Yeah, that always happens when you pet him. Keep going. He loves it."
Frisk nodded and kept petting the excited dog. It got overexcited and swung its sword a little too close to her by accident but she managed to dodge it as she kept petting the happy dog. Its neck grew and grew until it towered above Frisk, though she tried to keep petting him anyway.
"Lesser Dog is too high to reach, but he appreciates the effort." Chara told her, laughing as Lesser Dog then bounded off, excited."Well, it looks like you made his day. Now he's going to go run off and try to build the perfect snow dog again." Frisk gave her a questioning look. "Yeah, I don't know either." the ghost girl said with a shrug.
Frisk giggled at this. "Tina would love this guy. She loves puppies and he's just plain adorable." she thought, more to herself than Chara, though Chara heard her anyway. Her smile then disappeared as she thought about her sister. "Is she okay? Does she have enough food? I-I promised her I'd come back as soon as possible and I've almost been gone a whole day! She's probably worried sick and what if..."
Chara cut her off before she could go down that panicked train of thought. "Don't worry, Frisk. We'll get you back to her soon. She'll be fine." the ghost girl reassured her. "Look, you're doing everything you possibly can. There's not much more you can do but keep going, and worrying isn't going to help you or her any."
Frisk sighed softly and nodded. "I know, I know. Thanks, Chara."
After checking the path where Lesser Dog had come from, they came upon a sentient snowman who asked Frisk to take a piece of him so he could see the world. Frisk was a bit weirded out by the request, but acquiesced with Chara's encouragement and got the Snowman Piece. Soon, after getting on the right path, they came upon Papyrus and Sans once again. Sans subtly held out a hand indicating for Frisk to stop before she stepped on the gray, square shaped area standing out from the snow that separated her and the two skeletons while half listening to his brother rant.
"YOU'RE SO LAZY!" Papyrus yelled at Sans. "YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"
"I think that's called...sleeping." Sans said, amused.
"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" Papyrus growled before noticing Frisk. "OH HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE...QUITE SHOCKING!" FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN?!
"Actually..." Frisk started, but Papyrus just kept going.
"BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL HAVE...IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK. OKAY, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW!"
Frisk just stood still, trying to figure out how to get across. There was no way to tell where the path was. "Chara, can you see anything?"
Chara floated over and inspected the maze. "Nope."
"Okay, this is probably going to hurt...a lot." Frisk sighed as she cautiously stepped forwards onto the puzzle, but somehow it gave Papyrus a hearty zap instead.
"SANS, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Papyrus shouted indignantly.
"I think the human has to hold the orb." Sans pointed out.
"OH. OKAY." Papyrus said and walked the pattern of the maze, obviously knowing it well. Frisk tried to memorize where he was stepping, but it turned out she didn't even need to. Papyrus had left a trail of wet, muddy footprints as he walked across to her, clearly marking the safe path.
"HOLD THIS, PLEASE!" Papyrus requested, handing her the orb and walking back across. "OKAY, YOU CAN TRY NOW." Frisk thought about just subtly dropping the orb so there was no chance of getting shocked, but as Papyrus had left a pretty clear path, she humored him and kept it, following his footprints across. She did regret that decision for a bit when she accidentally brushed against a wall and zapped herself, but she made it across with no real injury besides a bit of wounded pride.
"INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY...TOO EASILY! HOWEVER, THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH!" He then moved towards the next area.
"Hey, thanks. My brother seems like he's having fun. By the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing? He made that a few weeks ago for some costume party. He hasn't worn anything else since. He keeps calling it his "battle body." Man, isn't my brother cool?"
"He's a total dork." Chara muttered, but it was with a fond smile.
"He is. He's funny." Frisk told him, ignoring Chara.
"Yes, he is. He's got some real RIB ticklers. Now you'd better go on. You don't want him to get too far a-HEAD of you." Sans joked and ushered Frisk on with a smile, making Chara laugh.
"Yeah, I'd better get my FEET moving." Frisk joked back as she left.
Chara shook her head. "That was terrible."
"It was the only thing I could think of on the fly!" Frisk protested mentally, blushing in embarrassment.
The ghost girl rolled her eyes playfully. "Just leave the bad puns to Sans. Or me. Because you suck."
...
"SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE?" they heard Papyrus yell as they approached the skele-bros again a few minutes later near another puzzle spot.
"It's right there. On the ground." Sans told him, pointing to a piece of paper. "Trust me. There's no way they can get past this one."
Frisk picked it up and found out that it was a Monster Kids Word Search. She shrugged and walked over to them. "SANS! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Papyrus growled.
Sans shrugged. "Whoops. I knew I should have used today's crossword instead."
"WHAT?! CROSSWORD?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION, JUNIOR JUMBLES IS EASILY THE HARDEST!"
"What? Really, dude? That's easy peasy word scramble? That's for baby bones."
"UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMAN! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE! WHICH IS HARDER, JUNIOR JUMBLES OR THE EASY, BORING CROSSWORD?!"
"I'll have to go with the Junior Jumbles." Frisk said after a bit of thought. Sans and Chara gave her a weird look. "What? I suck at unscrambling words." It was true. She always either completely misspelled them or couldn't figure out what word it was.
"HA! HA! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLES SO DIFFICULT! NYEH! HEH!HEH!HEH!" Papyrus crowed, happy she had agreed with his opinion, then wandered off to go check on the next puzzle.
"Thanks for saying Junior Jumbles just to appease my brother. Yesterday he got stumped trying to "solve" the horoscope." Sans said with a shrug, making Frisk and Chara laugh before they headed off again.
As soon as they entered the next area, they found a table with a big plate of spaghetti and a microwave on a stand. A note was on the ground and Frisk picked it up. "Geez, he even writes in all caps." she mumbled as she read it. "Human! Please enjoy this spaghetti. Little do you know, this spaghetti is a trap designed to entice you." She shook her head. "Well, I might not have known if you hadn't written it in your note..." She then kept reading. "You'll be so busy eating that you won't realize you aren't progressing! You have been thoroughly japed by the Great Papyrus...whatever the hell japed means...Nyeh heh heh heh, Papyrus. Well, he made that "trap" completely obvious."
"And the spaghetti is frozen solid." Chara remarked, amused.
Frisk poked at it, then tried to pick it up, hoping she could just heat in the microwave, but it didn't budge no matter how hard she tugged. She sighed in disappointment at the lost meal. "It's so cold, it's stuck to the table. Too bad. I was starting to get hungry. I guess we just go ahead then."
They dealt with a three monster team-up; another Ice Cap and Snowdrake along with some asshole monster named Jerry who insulted both his teammates and Frisk with every word, annoying them until they all ran off in separate directions, leaving Jerry in the dust. Next, Frisk encountered two Dogi, apparently named Dogamy and Dogaressa, according to Chara who had known them before she died. Frisk tried to pet them like she had Doggo and Lesser Dog, but they were freaked out by her scent. Dodging axes, she finally figured out that she needed to roll on the ground to change her scent, and when they sniffed her again, they decided she was a lost puppy and she was finally able to pet Dogamy, then Dogaressa demanded to be petted by "the weird puppy," too.
"Dogs can be petted by other dogs?! A new world has been opened up for us! Thanks, weird puppy!" they told her before leaving. Frisk just shook her head and continued on her way, solving a very simple switch puzzle that involved turning Xs into Os before running into Papyrus again.
"WHAT? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?" Papyrus asked, his eyes, well, eye sockets, looking pleadingly at her.
"I left all of it for you." Frisk told him, then hoped he wasn't offended.
"REALLY?! WOWIE! YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOME COOKED PASTA, JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" he asked, excited. "FRET NOT, I MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT? NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" He then walked off once again.
"Well, prepare for food poisoning." Chara told her.
"Hey, it might not be so bad. I mean, if it's not so cold that it's stuck to the table." Frisk said, thinking Papyrus's offer was sweet.
Papyrus was waiting for her when she arrived in the next area and told her about Sans's sock collection and how lucky Sans was to have a cool brother like him to take care of him. Not sure what to say to that random statement, Frisk just giggled and nodded. She then stepped forward to see a much more complicated version of the puzzle she had just solved. "HUMAN...HOW DO I SAY THIS? YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE...BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK LIKE MY FACE."
"So egotistical." Chara muttered.
"UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS...WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED. MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!"
Frisk stepped forward. "Hmm, should I go this way?" She started at the single one in the first row, and proceeded from there, only to make the puzzle reset by stepping on an X she had already stepped on. She then tried to go from the middle row, but made the same mistake. "Ugh...I suck at this..."
"Hmm, maybe if I get an overhead view..." Chara floated overhead to get a better view. "Okay...Maybe if you...No, that's wrong. Wait, try going around the puzzle and stepping on one of the X's in the back on the bottom, then step...there? No, there! Okay, I think I got it!" She then walked Frisk through the first few steps of the puzzle until Frisk could figure it out on her own.
"Okay, got it." Frisk said as she finished the puzzle. "Thanks, Chara. You're a lifesaver."
"No problem."
"WOW, YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP...INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN. IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!" He then gave his signature laugh again and proceeded past the solved puzzle. Frisk followed him and found Sans waiting.
"Wow. You must be really good at puzzles."
"Not really. I had a lot of trouble with it." she admitted honestly.
"Yeah, she had to get a new perspective to get a-HEAD of her game." Chara joked, then grew sad as she remembered once again that Sans couldn't hear her.
"Eh, don't worry about it. Sometimes puzzles can drive people out of their SKULLS. If you have trouble with one of Pap's puzzles, just ask him. He usually has an off switch hidden somewhere...even though he does forget sometimes. But he'll help ya, especially if you promise to eat spaghetti with him. He's been rather BONE-ly lately."
Sans then walked off and Frisk looked towards Chara, noticing the downcast expression on her face. "Chara, are you sure you don't want me to tell him you're here? I can tell that you miss him. I'm sure he misses you too."
"I-I know, but don't tell him. Not yet. Knowing I'm around but that he won't be able to see or hear me might just make him sad, or he won't believe it at all and will just get angry at you. It-It's better that he doesn't know."
"But..."
"Frisk, just drop it for now. Okay? Please?" Chara looked at her, pleading and vulnerable.
"All right. I'm sorry."
They continued on a set of stairs, and reached a tiny bridge in front of another puzzle with a bunch of square lights that kind of looked like the floor to a dsco. Right now, the lights were turned off and in varying shades of gray. Behind the puzzle stood Sans and Papyrus.
"HEY!" Papyrus called out to them. "IT'S THE HUMAN! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DOCTOR ALPHYS!" Frisk wondered who the heck that was. "YOU SEE THESE TILES? ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH...THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION! RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM! YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU!"
"Aww, really? I never thought electric tiles would electrocute you." Chara muttered with an eye roll. Frisk mentally told her to shush so she could hear.
"GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES!" Papyrus continued. "IF YOU STEP ON THEM, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER! ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE SCENTED. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS! BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES. SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU. ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU! PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP SMELLS LIKE LEMONS, WHICH PIRANHAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OK! FINALLY, PINK TILES...THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE! HOW WAS THAT? UNDERSTAND?"
"Not really." Frisk said, her head spinning. But Papyrus didn't hear her.
"GREAT! THERE IS ONE LAST THING! THIS PUZZLE IS...ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THE SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH-HEH HEH HEH! GET READY!"
"I'm gonna die..." Frisk mumbled to herself as Papyrus pulled the switch and the puzzle began flashing in all the various colors, making her dizzy. But when it stopped, it was a simple path of pink tiles with red tiles on either side of it. "Phew..." She crossed the puzzle and Papyrus walked away, muttering in confusion. Frisk noticed the switch was smoking. No wonder with all that crap that was supposed to be on the puzzle...
"Actually, that spaghetti from earlier wasn't too bad for my brother. Since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. If he keeps it up, next year, he might make something edible. Until then, I recommend hiding it when he's not looking or just offering it to him." Sans mentioned with a laugh as she passed him.
After passing a snow sculpture an excited Lesser Dog had made, they came upon the next puzzle, another one with Xs. Frisk failed to solve the puzzle the first time and fell into another snowy area, where she got to see a perfect snow sculpture of Papyrus and a pile of snow that just read Sans.
"Still as lazy as ever." Chara remarked fondly as she looked at Sans's snow sculpture.
After three tries, Frisk managed to get the X puzzle right without Chara's help and flip the switch, which set up the bridge that led her into the next area, where they saw Sans again, who simply asked, "What's up?" A few steps later, they ran into him again. "Are you following me?" he asked jokingly.
Frisk stammered out something, but Chara just laughed. "He's just messin' with you. Remember how I told you he cheats and warps places?"
Before Frisk could respond, there was a snort and a deer monster with glowing yellow eyes and a sideways mouth, its horns loaded down with items and tiny trees, charged at her. Frisk barely jumped out of the way in time.
"Great, idiots were decorating Gyftrot again...They should know it always pisses them off...Look out, Frisk!" Chara yelled as the Gyftrot charged at her again, blind anger in its eyes.
Frisk was hit by it and knocked down, but remembered what Chara had said. Maybe if she got the items off, it would calm down. She reached up as it rushed towards her again and grabbed a box from its antlers. It seemed to calm down a little, though it was shaking its head to try to get the rest of the gifts off. She managed to move before she got hit by the thick antlers, grabbing a stocking that contained a small, confused puppy, which she set on the ground safely out of the way. Her lack of attention did get her knocked in the face by another box as the Gyftrot bent down, making her nose bleed, but she ignored it, grabbing the box and removing it, a framed photograph of Snow Drake and his family falling to the ground. The Gyftrot stepped back and shook its head, happy for the weight being lifted.
Frisk tried to remove an ornament from its horns, thinking it was trying to get them off, but it gently nudged her hand and spoke for the first time. "Those are real, buddy. But thanks for getting all that junk off my head. I owe you one." It gave her a nuzzle and dropped some gold at her feet before trotting off happily.
"You okay there, kiddo?" Sans asked, helping her up and giving her a tissue for her bloody nose. "Wow, you sure have a NOSE for trouble."
"Tell me about it." she muttered and thanked him as she took the tissue. After cleaning herself up, she headed off...down the wrong path.
"Are you lost?" Sans asked her, popping in front of her suddenly.
"Possibly." she admitted and went back, where again, Sans was waiting.
"You sure do love to exercise." he teased her, then pointed out the right path.
They then entered a clearing with several piles of snow scattered around it. Frisk started to go right through, but then realized Chara had stopped and was staring at a snow poff. "Hey, Chara, you okay? Something interesting about that snow pile?" she asked aloud, forgetting to talk with her mind. Luckily, no one was there to hear her talking to what looked like nothing. However, Chara didn't seem to hear her either, lost in thought.
...
"C'mon, Chara! This meeting's boring and Mom and Dad are going to be at it for a while. Let's go play! I can show you this special spot I found!" Asriel pleaded. They were with their mom and dad, who were talking to some other monsters about a new town they were going to be building here.
Eleven year old Chara hesitated. She was just as bored as he was, but she didn't want to get in trouble either. She had been with the Dreemur family for six months, and they had shown her more kindness than she had ever been showed in her life and had never hurt her, but she still remembered how the adults in her village got when she made them angry...
"C'mon, Char, it's okay. We'll be back before they even notice we're gone and it's not that far, just across the bridge." Asriel told her. Finally Chara nodded and Asriel very gently took her hand, knowing that movements that were too sudden would startle her, and led her away across the bridge.
"Here we are!" Asriel then said proudly, leading her into a wide open clearing with several piles of snow. There was also a little skeleton there who looked to be around three or four, happily building a snowman. Asriel smiled and walked up to the little skeleton while Chara hung back. "Hi! I'm Asriel and this is my sister, Chara."
The little skeleton turned from his snowman and gave Asriel a huge smile. "Hi! 'M Papy and dis is my big brudder, S..." He had turned to motion to his side, then realized there was no one there. "Sans? Sans?!" He looked around frantically. "Where are you?!" Tears started to appear in his eye sockets.
Asriel placed a gentle hand on the skeleton's shoulder. "Don't worry, little guy. We'll help you find your brother, right, Chara?" he said and Chara nodded. Papy gave him a grateful look and Asriel started to take a step when the snow poff closest to them started moving and something suddenly exploded out of it.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Asriel and Papy screamed at the top of their lungs as they grabbed onto each other in fear and Chara acted on instinct, jumping in front of her adoptive brother and the little kid protectively, about to take a swing at whatever was about to attack them.
"Whoa! Easy!" a preteen male voice said and Chara realized the person who had jumped out at them was another skeleton, this one around Chara's age and wearing a blue coat. "Sorry. I was just trying to pull a little prank on Pap. Didn't mean to scare you guys that bad." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, then held out a hand to Chara. "Hi, I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. It's ICE to meet you."
Chara gave him a dirty look for scaring Asriel and Pap, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards at the pun. She shared her adoptive mother's love of bad jokes and puns. And he HAD said sorry... So she took his hand and shook it. "I'm Chara."
Asriel and Papyrus had calmed down quickly and Asriel introduced himself, though Pap was pouting.
Sans sighed with a smile. "Sorry, bro. Guess I was a real BONEHEAD. I probably deserve a COLD reception."
"SNOW kidding." Chara then said with a smirk and Papyrus groaned at them both using terrible puns.
"Heh, ICE one." Sans told her, laughing.
"Hey, you already used that one. It's not OREGANO." Chara countered, grinning.
"Oh, so you want to have a pun war? Well, watch out. I'm good. You'll have a bad THYME." Sans said with a smirk.
Papyrus groaned again and Asriel rolled his eyes. "Want some help with your snowman?" the goat prince asked Papyrus as Sans and Chara continued to exchange puns.
...
Chara snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Frisk, who had called her name again. "Sorry, what was that?"
"Whoa...that was weird." Frisk said, rubbing her head as the flashes of a memory that wasn't hers passed. Chara had been unintentionally projecting bits and pieces of the memory of her first meeting with Sans to Frisk, and it was definitely disorienting, seeing the scenery change around her and getting flashes of people that weren't there. "You okay?"
"Yeah, just got lost in thought for a sec there. This place brings back memories." Chara said. "Let's just keep going."
Frisk nodded and walked next to Chara, not sure whether to tell her that she had just seen part of her memories. Being able to project thoughts was one thing, but seeing someone else's memories felt like a breach of privacy. She was about to discuss it with Chara when the head of a white, fluffy dog and a wagging tail suddenly popped out of the snow poff in front of them, making them both jump, then relax when they realized it was just a dog. "Hey, puppy!" Frisk called with a smile and the rest of the snow poff went flying, revealing the dog was huge, carrying a spear, and wearing a suit of armor that was about a foot taller than Frisk was. Frisk's smile immediately dropped as she backed away. "T-That's a big puppy..." She backed away and it inched closer, then barked happily, but the bark was loud enough to hurt her ears.
"Pet it." Chara advised. Frisk petted and it wagged its tail, then knocked her down and fell asleep in her lap...for about two seconds. Then it jumped up and all over her, excited and wanting to play. Frisk yelped as it accidentally scratched her arms and legs with both its claws and the spear it was holding, but she made a snowball and threw it. The dog happily ran after it, then brought back all the snow in the area and dumped it on her, covering her up to her neck. The dog then knocked her down again by accident and rested its head in her lap.
"So cold..." Frisk groaned as she was mostly buried in the snow, but petted it, making it sink its entire weight on her lap. It was still wiggling though and she had to dodge its spear, which was hard since it had her pinned. But she managed to keep calm and pet it again. It rolled over and flopped on its back happily. It then jumped out of its armor, noticed she was buried in the snow, dug her out, licked her face, and jumped upside down in its suit of armor again with its butt and fluffy tail sticking out before walking off(somehow.)
Frisk got up shakily. "C-C-Cold...S-S-So c-c-cold." she mumbled, shivering violently. It was already cold out here and her clothes being soaked and covered in snow made her body temperature drop lower.
Chara had been laughing at the dog's antics, but when she looked at Frisk, she grew worried. Frisk's lips and fingertips were starting to turn blue."Hang in there, Frisk. We're almost to Snowdin. Just keep moving." she told her, not knowing what else to do. She couldn't carry Frisk back if she collapsed, nor could she run for help as only Frisk could see her.
Frisk managed to get to the long bridge and started to make her way across it, her shivering getting worse. When she was three quarters of the way across, she saw Sans and Papyrus on the other side.
"HUMAN!" Papyrus called. "THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLETS OF DEADLY TERROR!" Spears pointed above and below, along with a mace overhead and a fire cannon below. For some reason, a small, fluffy dog was hanging above her head too, wagging its tail. "WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT TO! DO! IT!" He didn't sound so sure about it though.
Still shivering violently, Frisk looked at the weapons, thinking hazily, I'm about to die... Instinctively, she tried to move backwards, but her freezing legs, trembling with both cold and fear, gave out on her and she fell onto the bridge.
"HUMAN?!" Papyrus gasped in horror and worry, noticing how bad of a shape she was in. He deactivated the trap and ran down the bridge, picking her up. "HUMAN, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" Frisk mumbled something vaguely like, "I'm fine," but Papyrus wasn't convinced as he could feel how cold she was and how much she was shaking. He wrapped her up in his scarf. "FORGET THIS PUZZLE! IT'S TOO DANGER... EASY! THE PUZZLE IS TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH! I SHALL TAKE THE HUMAN BACK TO SNOWDIN INN SO THEY CAN GET WARM AND THEN MAKE A SAFER, I MEAN HARDER, PUZZLE TO THAT WILL SURELY STUMP THEM! THEY'LL HAVE TO BE AT THEIR FULL STRENGTH FOR IT!" he called back to Sans, cradling Frisk in his arms as he carried her back across the bridge.
Sans was smiling as Papyrus came back across. He knew Papyrus wouldn't have gone through with that trap anyway. His brother didn't have a mean BONE in his body.
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? THIS IS A DECISIVE VICTORY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Papyrus told Sans.
"I know, bro. I know." Sans told him.
This satisfied Papyrus and he looked down at Frisk, very concerned, his true sweet nature showing through. "HANG IN THERE, HUMAN. YOU'RE GONNA BE OKAY, I PROMISE." Papyrus told Frisk gently, carrying her into town.
"T-T-Thanks, P-P-Papyrus." Frisk said, cuddling as close as she could, trying to get warm. Chara was floating close, worried.
"NO PROBLEM! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS THERE TO HELP!" He moved quicker to get her out of the cold, almost running into Snowdin Inn and explained the situation to the innkeeper as he set her down gently.
"Don't worry, we'll get them a room with a fireplace." the innkeeper told her and got her a room key. Frisk thanked her and then Papyrus again already feeling better now that she was out of the cold, though she was still shivering pretty hard. Papyrus made sure she got safely up the stairs and to her room before he returned to his shift. Once safely in her room, Frisk locked the door and after getting out of her wet clothes, not even caring that Chara was there, she threw them in front of the fireplace to dry and buried her shivering body under every blanket in the room, falling asleep almost immediately.
Hours later, she awoke again, toasty warm and feeling a lot better. Chara was waiting beside the bed. "You were out for a while. You had both me and Papyrus pretty worried. You okay?" the ghost girl asked, looking at her in concern.
"I'm fine now." Frisk reassured her as she got up, wrapped herself in a blanket, and grabbed her now dry clothes.
Chara sighed with relief, glad her friend was okay. "Good. Try not to do that again, okay?"
"No promises, but I'll do my best." Frisk replied before going into the shower room and getting dressed. She then headed downstairs to pay the innkeeper for her stay.
"Thank you. And come back again at any time." the innkeeper told her. "Oh, and that tall, excitable skeleton brought in something for you half an hour ago." the innkeeper told her, handing her a covered dish.
Frisk thanked her and found a place to sit, unwrapping it to find a plate of spaghetti that was thankfully hot instead of frozen solid.
"Aww...he did this for me?" Frisk asked aloud in awe, a smile appearing on her face. She read the note. "I, Master Chef Papyrus, have made you some of my world famous spaghetti. You'd better have gotten well! You will need all your strength to deal with my next challenge! Nyeh heh heh heh! -Papyrus." This made her smile even more. "That's so sweet." She took a bite of the spaghetti and immediately gagged.
"Sans did try to warn you." Chara told her, laughing as she watched Frisk try to choke down the rest of the meal.
"Oh, shut up." Frisk mumbled playfully.